Beijing from above

[hauchyi]

All pictures are mine. They were taken during the Oct 1 holiday (China's national day).

I've been living in Beijing for more than a year now. This city is definitely the most pleasant Chinese city I've ever stayed.

Forbidden Palace, at the center of the city, taken from the World Trade Center of China, with the west side of the city dominated by the Beijing TV Tower. The lake by the forbidden city is the headquarter of the communist party..


The south side:
Altar of Heaven really is not that big a structure. I was disappointed standing in front of it... The dome behind the altar of heaven is Beijing South Station where all high-speed rail trains stop.


South-west side with the view of TianAnMen Square in the upper half of the picture: The avenue is ChangAn Avenue, the main east-west fair thoroughfare. Beijing main station is in the center of the picture. There are at least four main railway stations in the city going to every part of the country.



The north-west side:
The lake in the picture is the famous Houhai (Rear Sea). The two Chinese towers in the middle are the bell and drum towers from left to right (north to south). As you can see, the old Beijing is literally surrounded on four sides by a new city. If you look closely, the building in the far end marks the tallest building in Haidian, where the summer palace is. It is about 15km (and 30min on subway) from the center.


North-east side:
The most trendy part of BJ.. Sanlitun and worker's stadium. It feels more like a China town with foreigners (mostly White guys) hanging out everywhere.


Altar of Sun (Ritan) park: Many countries have their embassies by the Ritan park. The yellow building with a swimming pool is UK's embassy.


The shadow of the WTC of China pointing at Ritan Park.


More to come..

[Austinlee]

Wonderful pics. These finally give a feel for how massive Beijing is.

[stepper77]

I have never seen Beijing from this vantage point. Nice photos, thanks!

[Dylan Leblanc]

nice. I always love seeing aerial pics.

[sunbeach]

Another gigantic behemoth. Nice photos. I'm assuming you took this photo from one or more tall buildings or maybe a helicopter? And from what i see in this photo, looks like the Chinese took some time in designing their structures, translation: the Beijing buildings look nice.

I'm still young,healthy but on a 'budget' however this is another city I'd like to visit before i die. Speaking of death, I've been told Beijing is heavy in air pollution...is that true?

[peanut gallery]

Cool shots. Looks quite different from Shanghai or HK, the only two Chinese cities I've been to.

[hauchyi]

Originally Posted by peanut gallery

Cool shots. Looks quite different from Shanghai or HK, the only two Chinese cities I've been to.

Ya, Beijing is different from SH or HK. Some are good, as it's not as tight or "in your face" everything. Some are bad, because everything is so far away, that I think trying to be pedestrian-friendly must be the last thing they have in mind. For example, most north and south entrances of subway stations are only connected on the platform level. It can't be used as a way to cross the insanely wide and exposed BJ avenues.

But overall it is the most pleasant Chinese cities I've stayed. I really love this city.

[Ayreonaut]

Great shots. Thanks for the comments, gives me some idea of what I'm looking at.

[sterlippo1]

fascinating...................and it looks like a beautiful city

[RobertWalpole]

Superb!

[LSyd]

thanks for the interesting pics. IMO, it could use more "colorful" buildings.

-

[hauchyi]

In case you are wondering, I took all these pictures in the WTC of China (on the 74th floor in a Shangri La hotel room). It is currently the tallest building in Beijing and locates in the CBD area of Beijing.

CCTV - China's official TV station that young people rare watch. The shorter building under construction is the famously torched Oriental Mandarin Hotel that was burned down during a firework show during one of the Chinese New Year.

Government architects concluded that the fire only torched the interior deco, and the structure is still safe. As a result, only the facade needs to be replaced. Living in China for too long, I don't think I will ever stay in that hotel when it opens.

CCTV at night:


The CBD Area: This is where most foreign companies locate. There are two important business districts in Beijing. Financial street to the west (you can see it in one of the above pictures right in front of the TV Tower). CBD to the east.

As you can see, CBD is still bustling with all the new constructions.

[hauchyi]

Originally Posted by LSyd

thanks for the interesting pics. IMO, it could use more "colorful" buildings.

-

I completely agree.. Beijing for the most part was built to impress by some silly communist officials that didn't really know what look good.

[sunbeach]

Originally Posted by hauchyi

I completely agree.. Beijing for the most part was built to impress by some silly communist officials that didn't really know what look good.

Perhaps I need to travel some more and live in Beijing but looking at the photos , some of those skyscrapers are just the type you see in science fiction films. I don't think there's anything like it in the U.S....maybe, Disneyland.

[photoLith]

I miss Beijing so much, lived there in 2007, Im sure its changed greatly since then.

[Kilgore Trout]

thanks for these photos. they remind me i have a bunch of year-old beijing shots that i need to get around to posting.

i really did not expect to like beijing, so i was very much surprised when i visited. the old hutong neighbourhoods inside the second ring road are fascinating to wander around and much more expansive than i assumed. and while the newer parts of the city are vast and built on a gigantic scale, they don't feel oppressive, partly because there are so many human-scaled elements: small shops, street hawkers, tree-lined promenades, small alleys between the mega-blocks.

i think i also like it because, after having lived in hong kong for awhile now, i have come to realize there is some intangible quality about northern cities that i really enjoy. maybe it's the light.

[Pavlov]

Originally Posted by Kilgore Trout

thanks for these photos. they remind me i have a bunch of year-old beijing shots that i need to get around to posting.

i really did not expect to like beijing, so i was very much surprised when i visited. the old hutong neighbourhoods inside the second ring road are fascinating to wander around and much more expansive than i assumed. and while the newer parts of the city are vast and built on a gigantic scale, they don't feel oppressive, partly because there are so many human-scaled elements: small shops, street hawkers, tree-lined promenades, small alleys between the mega-blocks.

i think i also like it because, after having lived in hong kong for awhile now, i have come to realize there is some intangible quality about northern cities that i really enjoy. maybe it's the light.

To me, Beijing's intangible quality is that, despite being at the educational, cultural and political heart of Chinese Civilization (on and off) for the last 2,400 years, it still feels like it is on the frontier. I this arises mostly from geography: a close proximity to the Jundu mountains, the great wall of China, the Gobi desert, and the Mongol hordes. However, I think there is a cultural element as well: for example, Beijing is the cutting edge of the Chinese art (and, at least it was a couple of years ago, a darling of the international scene as well) and cuisine scenes.

Anyway, this is an outstanding thread. One of my favourite threads of the year so far (and, in light of the truly extraordinary number of amazing photo threads we are treated to on SSP, I mean this as high praise indeed.) Finally shows off the scale of Beijing, ancient capital of the world's oldest and largest civilization, modern megalopolis of 20 million people. I really appreciate the effort you've made in capturing Beijing from this rare and very suitable perspective. Thank you and I can't wait to see more.

I would just add: although Beijing is ringed and crossed by freeways and boulevards, the side streets and neighborhoods are a cacophony of restaurants, vegetable markets, shopping streets, street vendors, and of course throngs of people, like all of Asia's metropolises.

[hauchyi]

Originally Posted by Reesonov

To me, Beijing's intangible quality is that, despite being at the educational, cultural and political heart of Chinese Civilization (on and off) for the last 2,400 years, it still feels like it is on the frontier. I this arises mostly from geography: a close proximity to the Jundu mountains, the great wall of China, the Gobi desert, and the Mongol hordes. However, I think there is a cultural element as well: for example, Beijing is the cutting edge of the Chinese art (and, at least it was a couple of years ago, a darling of the international scene as well) and cuisine scenes.

Anyway, this is an outstanding thread. One of my favourite threads of the year so far (and, in light of the truly extraordinary number of amazing photo threads we are treated to on SSP, I mean this as high praise indeed.) Finally shows off the scale of Beijing, ancient capital of the world's oldest and largest civilization, modern megalopolis of 20 million people. I really appreciate the effort you've made in capturing Beijing from this rare and very suitable perspective. Thank you and I can't wait to see more.

I would just add: although Beijing is ringed and crossed by freeways and boulevards, the side streets and neighborhoods are a cacophony of restaurants, vegetable markets, shopping streets, street vendors, and of course throngs of people, like all of Asia's metropolises.

Thanks for your nice words, Reesonov..

One can write many essays discussing how China or Beijing has become such. I wish Chinese the best. Although annoyed by many of them many times, they are indeed smart and hard working and deserve more than what they have right now.

Starting from next post, I will show closeups of interesting or important buildings in Beijing. Beijing is, after all, the capital city of a country that disproportionately puts bureaucrats and businessmen in front of ordinary people. The focus will inevitably reflect that.

[hauchyi]

National Library Building and the Capital Stadium:
The green roofed building with two wings is the national library. The fancy slate looking building next to (the north of) it is the new wing. Of course it has to be the largest in Asia.
The park to the left (west) is the purple bamboo park with the first big lake after the river flows past the summer palace into the city. It takes about an hour and half hiking along the river to the summer palace.

That big green area in the upper part of the picture is not the edge of the city. It is the old summer palace (that was burned down by Brits and French in the late 19th century) that is now Peking University, Tsinghua University and YuanMinYuan Park.

In the center of the picture, the modern Chinese building is the Ministry of Finance of China. It was supposedly built in the early days of the PRC. Of course, one can't ignore the egg shaped building in the upper part of the picture, the national center for the performing arts.

In case you are wondering what is going on in the dried part of the lake, it is the subway line 9 that is supposed to operate in 2012.

[hauchyi]

Pano of the southwest side looking southeast:
Saved for the important buildings along the ChangAn Street (the East-west thoroughfare of the central Beijing), south side is generally a poorer area of Beijing.


Beijing West Station, built in 1996. Beijing West Station used to be the largest station in the city, until the new Beijing South Station, opened in 2008, took its crown.

This area is said to be the lowest area in Beijing. It has a serious flood problem. In the short year that I've been living here, it has been flooded twice.
Many buildings built in the 1990s have a what locals call "Chinese hat." It is enforced by the then mayor (who was later put into prison for 16 years for corruption).

The soviet-era building is the national military museum, a boring/bizzare/lots of propaganda/cool place that I hope one day Chinese can laugh about.
The big modern building to its left is the Ministry of National Defense, a place that is not marked on Chinese map.
I am not sure if you've notcied the round structure by the lake with a niddle pointing towards the sky. It's the China Millennium Monument (or Altar of the New Millennium), built in 2000. Don't go there even though some tourist books recommend. It's boring with nothing to see (but a cool place to take picture of the ginormous west station).


That boring tall, white builing to the right of the National Military Museum is the old CCTV Headquarter. Speaking of improvement of office space....